Lunar probe launches on collision course with moon

[Soylent Brice]

Two NASA probes are on their way to the moon in the hopes of finding water ice and safe landing sites that could pave the way for the return of astronauts to the lunar surface.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and a piggyback mission called Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) took off at 2132 GMT on Thursday aboard an Atlas V rocket from a launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The two lunar missions, which together cost some $580 million, are NASA's first since 1998 and are intended to pave the way for a potential human settlement on the moon. "We will prepare ... the guidebook for future exploration of the moon," LRO project scientist Richard Vondrak told reporters on Tuesday.

LRO will arrive at the moon after about four days and is expected to spend several years in orbit, mapping the lunar surface using a suite of instruments including cameras and an advanced laser altimeter. The altimeter will fire five laser beams 28 times per second to build up 3D maps of the surface.



more: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17336-lunar-probe-launches-on-collision-course-with-moon.html

[sakabatou]

1. From AMV Hell...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWr72l22NV4

They predicted it.

[Soylent Brice]

2. can't access youtube.

i'll have to google for details.

thanks for the link!

[sakabatou]

3. You can go to amvhell.com

to see the whole video and not just that clip.

[SidDithers]

4. I can't help but giggle every time I read about this mission...

given the recent threads about it here.

Thanks for posting :hi:

Sid

[liberal N proud]

5. One NASA mission I just don't understand

[Bill McBlueState]

6. I think the goal

is to analyze spectra of the ejecta to determine their chemical composition.

[sofa king]

8. That's the LCROSS part of it.

The LRO part is a low-level mapping and science satellite which is essential to scouting out potential landing spots. Apollo 11 almost ended badly because they found they were headed for a crater too large to land in but too small to show up in the resolution of cameras and telescopes of the time. At the same time, it will perform other important scientific analysis.

The LCROSS part comes from the extra energy they have thanks to the powerful Atlas/Centaur launch combination. Once it stops firing and dumps its remaining fuel, the empty Centaur becomes LCROSS, and will be wrecked into one of the lunar poles for the reasons you describe.

That beats the hell out of the complicated slingshot orbits that NASA gurus had to devise back in the 80s and 90s to get instruments to the Moon and to other places, when all the heavy-lift capability of the United States was concentrated in the Shuttle system and a few Titans that had a habit of blowing up.

[liberal N proud]

9. Are the weights lunar weight or earth weight?

[Soylent Brice]

10. i read somewhere that they're looking for water primarily.

you're right. they're going to analyze chemical compositions.

[sofa king]

7. That was an awesome launch.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/on_demand_video.html?param=http://anon.nasa-global.edgesuite.net/anon.nasa-global/ksc/ksc_061809_lrolcross_launch.asx|http://anon.nasa-global.edgesuite.net/anon.nasa-global/ksc/ksc_061809_lrolcross_launch.asx&_id=198409&_title=Liftoff!%20LRO%2C%20LCROSS%20Head%20to%20the%20Moon&_tnimage=361412main_ksc_061809_lrolcross_launch-t.gif

I don't know if that link is going to work or not. If not, try this page and click the little video box on the right side. The camera on the side of the rocket keeps filming all the way out of the atmosphere, if that's the full video.

I don't quite know why we're banging our head against the wall trying to make a new man-rated launcher (Ares) when the Atlas 5 has a solid kerosene/oxygen system running through a bulletproof Russian engine and has the coveted 1.4 safety factor on components almost across the board.

The crew vehicle they're designing is already too heavy to fit on the Ares, anyway, and will have to be redesigned. Why not redesign it so that it fits on a safe and reliable launcher we already have, instead of a wrongly-designed launcher we can't build right?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

11. Oh shit, I just started menstruating.

And it's not even my time of the month.

[SidDithers]

13. Yeah, but that's only 'cause you're living in the...

Terrarium of Misogyny.

Sid

[Uncle Joe]

12. I wonder if they could point the Hubble at the collision just for the hell of it,

maybe it's too close in to get a good sizable resolution?